After uninstallation, some (empty) folders are not removed. Why not?
There may be various causes for this.
- For safety reasons, Tarma QuickInstall does not remove folders that it
didn't create itself during installation, not even if those folders are
empty after file removal. This includes folders that only hold shortcuts,
for example the program group folder on the Windows Start > Programs
menu.
- In some situations, such as when you install an application on top of
an existing installation, the second installation will see that its folders
already exist prior to installation and will therefore not remove them
during uninstallation. For that reason, it is advisable to uninstall an
application before installing a new version. See Uninstalling
a Previous Application Version for details on how to do this.
-
Finally, Tarma QuickInstall never removes folders that still contain
files or subfolders. The primary causes for stray files and folders
are:
- Files that are in use when the application in uninstalled. In
that case, Tarma QuickInstall automatically schedules these files
for removal during the next system restart, but this might still
leave (empty) folders behind.
- Files that are created by your application (or a different application
altogether) after installation, so Tarma QuickInstall doesn't
know about them. This can be resolved, though; see Uninstalling
Files Created by the Application for more information on how
to do this.
- Shared files whose reference count indicates that they are still
required by other applications. See After
uninstallation, some files are not removed. Why not? for more
information.
It is possible to override the default behavior by checking Clean up aggressively
on the Installation project page. If you check that option, Tarma QuickInstall
will remove all empty folders that it encounters during the uninstallation
process. In practice, this comes down to all folders that contain installation
files. It also includes the application's program group folder.
Note - Non-empty folders are never removed, not even when Clean up
aggressively is checked. Therefore, it is relatively safe to use that
option.